Islamic State claims responsibility for Pakistan hospital suicide attack
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Pakistani journalists shout slogans during a protest to mourn the victims of suicide bomb attack in Quetta, in Peshawar, Pakistan. At least 70 people mostly lawyers and two journalists, were killed when a bomb exploded when dozens of lawyers and journalists gathered outside the civil hospital following the assassination of a lawyers senior fellow in a target killing in Quetta.
PHOTO: EPA
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CAIRO (REUTERS, AFP) - Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Pakistan that killed at least 70 people and wounded more than a hundred on Monday in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in Quetta, the group's Amaq news agency reported.
"A martyr from the Islamic State detonated his explosive belt at a gathering of justice ministry employees and Pakistani policemen in the city of Quetta," Amaq said.
The Pakistani Taliban faction Jamaat-ur-Ahrar has also claimed responsibility for the attack.
Both the United Nations and the United States have condemned the attack, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying it was "particularly appalling" that the suicide attack targeted a group of mourners.
The bomber struck a crowd of some 200 people gathered at the Civil Hospital in Quetta after the fatal shooting of a senior local lawyer earlier in the day.
At least 70 people died in the attack and more than 100 were wounded.
"The targeting of mourners at a civilian hospital makes the attack particularly appalling," said Ban's spokesman Farhan Haq.
Ban urged the Pakistani government to do its utmost to bring those behind the attack to justice.
